Report by Shane Wignall

Discovery of Copernicium

Name Origin:Named in honor of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), a Polish scientist and astronomer. Copernicus is most famous for discovering that the Earth circles the Sun. Element 112 was named July 13, 2009

Abundance of Copernicium:

Earth's Crust/p.p.m.: N/A

Seawater/p.p.m.: N/A

Atmosphere/p.p.m.: N/A

Sun (Relative to H=1E12): N/A

Uses of Copernicium:None

Additional Notes: Sigurd Hofmann and his group at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany produced element 112 (Cn277) for the first time in fusion reactions of Zn70 projectiles with Pb208 targets. The formed compound nucleus 278112 deexcites by emitting a neutron and results in the isotope Cn277. Sigurd Hofmann and his group observed one nucleus of element 112 in a three week experiment which ran 24 hours per day. Cn277 is radioactive and decays after a few 100 µs by the emission of an alpha particle into the daughter nucleus Ds273.

Nicolaus Copernicus

Pictures of Nicolaus Copernicus was found on google search images

Copernicium periodic table information

Copernicium is a chemical element with symbol Cn and atomic number 112. It is an extremely radioactive synthetic element that can only be created in a laboratory. The most stable known isotype, copernicium-285, has a half life of approximately 29 seconds, but it is possible that this Copernicium isotope may have a nuclear isomer with a longer half-life, 8.9 min.

This information was found under Wikipedia.com

Picture of Element symbol was found on google search pictures

Copercium location on the periodic time table

In the periodic table of the elements, it is a d-block transactinide element. During reactions with gold, it has been shownto be an extremely volatile metal and a group 12 element, and it may even be a gas at standard temperature and pressure. Copernicium is calculated to have several properties that differ between it and its lighter homologues, zinc, cadmium and mercury; the most notable of them is withdrawing two 6d-electrons before 7s ones due to relativistic effects, which confirm copernicium as an undisputed transition metal. Copernicium is also calculated to show a predominance of the oxidations state+4, while mercury shows it in only one compound at extreme conditions and zinc and cadmium do not show it at all. It has also been predicted to be more difficult to oxidise copernicium from its neutral state than the other group 12 elements.

In total, approximately 75 atoms of copernicium have been detected using various nuclear reactions.

The information above was found on Wikipedia.com

Below: Periodic Table of the Elements picture was found on chemistry.about.com courtesy of Todd Hemenstine

Copernicium Neutron

Copernicium Electron

Copernicium Protons

Copernicium Neutron

Photo was found on google search Copernicium images

Copernicium Electron

Photo was found on google search Copernicium images

Copernicium Symbol

Where are they found

Natural abundance Copernicium is a man-made element of which only a few atoms have ever been made. It is formed by fusing lead and zinc atoms in a heavy ion accelerator. These elements are so large and unstable they can be made only in the lab, and they fall apart into other elements very quickly. Not much is known about these elements, since they aren't stable enough to do experiments on and are not found in nature.

Information on where the elements to Copernicium are found was found on livescience.com and www.rsc.org

Copernicium element pictured was found on using google search Copernicium images

Copernicium Uses, Chararistics, Physical and Chemical Properties

According to research done on webelements.com, Copernicium Element 112 (provisionally named Copernicium, Cn) has no uses as only a very few atoms of this element have been identified.Uses: At present, it is only used in research.

Physical properties information was found on environmentalchemistry.com.

Interesting facts and information

Copernicium is predicted to be a pale silver transition metal that is liquid or perhaps a gas at room temperature. Although only a few atoms of Copernicium have ever existed, it is predicted to be very dense.

Discovery of Copernicium showed it produced one atom. Being the shy element that it is, it disappeared almost immediately by releasing a high-energy helium nuclei (alpha decay).

Six isotopes of copernicium have been observed so far. Most of these undergo alpha decay, although some decay through spontaneous fission. The most stable isotope, copernicium-285, has an observed half-life of 29 seconds.

information regarding Copernicium was found on theguardian.comthe below video was found on theguardian.com with a link to youtube.com to watch.